Canoe Club on the Tongariro River

Having come all the way to New Zealand I was going to make sure that I made the most of my two-week break in the middle of the semester. I had arrived back from the Abel Tasman adventure late on Thursday morning. I spent most of Thursday getting both myself and my clothes clean before I set about doing a coding assignment that was due on Monday. I went into university on Friday morning again trying to do as much of the assignment as possible before 15:30 rolled around and Harry, Charlotte and I set off for the Tongariro River. We would be spending the weekend white water rafting with the Canoe Club. As there were no formal activities planned on the Friday evening we stopped in Taupo and visited Spa Thermal Park. In this park, there is a naturally occurring hot water stream that runs through the park and down into the river. There are several pools along the stream where it is possible to sit in the water. The further away from the river, the hotter the water.

We arrived at about 8pm so it was dark out. We walked down to where the stream meets the river but there was some sort of party going on so we ventured up stream and found an empty pool. Seeing as there were only the three of us there and we were good friends and it was dark out I decided I didn’t want to start the weekend with wet togs so I went skinny dipping. Unfortunately, about two minutes later four other people decided they were going to join us in our pool. Now this was fine as it was dark and I was sitting in the water but the hot water was really hot. It was gorgeous for about five minutes before it starts to get a little uncomfortable and it’s a good idea to stand up and let yourself cool a little. I was at this stage of wanting to get out but found myself trapped. I managed to find a rock at the right height to sit on, keeping the bare minimum under the water, while I waited for our new friends to decide that they too were too hot. Unfortunately, the four strangers were drinking and this seemed to make them less susceptible to the heat. I ended up stewing in the water for about 20minutes, with Charlotte and Harry giggling at my situation the whole time, until the quartet decided they were going to leave.

I eventually cooled down and we drove a further 45minutes around lake Taupo to the back packers where we were staying. We had to check in with the owner and pay for our rooms when we first arrived. He was a tall man with a bit of a quirk about him and an evident interest in astrology. Charlotte introduced us to him and then he said to Harry, ‘You must be born in August or September’. Rather bemused Harry said that he was and asked how he knew. It turns out he had thought that Harry was a Leo (as a star sign), rather than my name, and so managed to guess his birthday month by complete chance!

On Saturday morning, the three of us were up early so we all were in the first rafting group. We were shuttled to the entry point of the river and we grabbed wetsuits (I got two for good measure!) and helped to pump up and clean the rafts. We went through the safety with our raft guide, Jonny, before we were on the river. We were one of three rafts from the club and we paddled together down the stunning river for about three hours. It was so beautiful and the water was very clear (and cold) as it was melt water. About half way down, one of the boats managed to capsize so we had great fun trying to rescue everyone. At one stage, our boat had about 14 people in it. We started out with 7. I really enjoyed going down the rapids of the grade three river and was sorry that it ended. Once the boats were out of the water the three of us and a few others from the club drove back to the hot pools from the day before.

I could see far more in the daylight and swam through a pipe under the path as well as jumping off a bridge into the cold water in the river and then swimming back under into the hot water. An incredible sensation. We spent a few hours there before heading back for dinner, a few board games and watching the All Blacks beat South Africa 57-0!

I quite like rising early so it was no hardship being up again on Sunday for more rafting. We were due to raft a different river but there was a Maori ceremony taking place so we rafted the same three-hour stretch. We were with Jonny again, he’s from the UK (near Oxford) and a P.E. teacher by trade, which was wonderful as he is full of energy and we sang our way down the river. We managed to not capsize once again and made full use of the ‘Fun Lines’, as Jonny called them, going through the rapids. Unfortunately, starting the day wet meant that I was a huge amount colder by the end of the journey and I couldn’t move my fingers enough to put my socks on so I had to get Harry to help. We stopped at the hot pools again on the way home. It’s amazing how quickly you forget about being so very cold.

I didn’t have my camera with me but I took some video at the pools which can be found here.